E31 - Management of Recovered Wood

COST Action E31 “Management of Recovered Wood” addressed different aspects of using Recovered Wood as raw material or energy carrier with the aim, to develop and improve the management of Recovered Wood towards a higher common technical, environmental and economic standard in Europe. The main target was to develop strategies to avoid landfilling and waste incineration without energy use of Recovered Wood. 22 countries were taking part in this COST Action to advance the methodology for environmental, technical and economical evaluation of different Recovered Wood treatment options.

A special focus was put on the “Amounts of Recovered Wood” in the member countries Action E31. For the first time an estimation of the amount of Recovered Wood in 20 out of 22 member countries could be made: about 30 Mio tons of Recovered Wood are produced annually which corresponds to about 13% of the annual round wood consumption of 227 Mio tons and about 444 PJ/a or 0.7% of the primary energy consumption of 67,000 PJ/a. Currently, 34% of Recovered Wood is used for energy generation, 38% is being recycled and 28% is being composted or put into landfills. Thus, already 11 Mio. tons CO2-emissions per year can be saved through the substitution of fossil fuels and approx. 10 Mio. tons of fresh wood can be saved.

Furthermore, Action E31 gave a comprehensive overview on the different management options for Recovered Wood and on available data on the different Recovered Wood assortments in Europe with focus on market prices and measurement methods to determine quality aspects of Recovered Wood (e.g.: sampling methods). The already existing data base could be expanded and tools for the comparison of different management options for Recovered Wood were analysed.
All the important results of the scientific work carried out by this Action were presented in three conferences and compiled in the relevant proceedings. These conferences brought together international experts in the field from all over the world, including USA and Japan.

Joint activities with COST E37 (Sustainability Through New Technologies For Enhanced Wood Durability), IEA Task 38 (Greenhouse Gas Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems) and InnovaWood were carried out to exchange experiences and to create common perspectives.

A webpage was set up (http://www.ctib-tchn.be/coste31/frames/f_e31.htm) to disseminate the information generated by COST Action E31.